Musings on Faith #15
Neon Christians
    Don't be a Pharisee! Too many Christians today have become, or are becoming, religious Pharisees. It seems incredible to me that this is so, because Christ spent His entire ministry railing against the legalistic religiosity of the Pharisees. I have heard non-believers say "Now, Tom, you know I'm not religious." So what? Neither am I! Religion can rob us of our faith and our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus said "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your . . . garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone (Luke 11:42, NIV)." In other words, the Pharisees were fastidious, or religious, in giving to God, but it was all legalistic and by rote, not through the love of God and their fellow man. They even tithed their garden herbs, and exactly so! He went on to say "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it (verses 43-44, NIV)." Sound like any Christians you know? I call their present day counterparts "Neon Christians" because they want everyone to know what religious people they are, but won't give up their seat in Church to a visitor. They're like someone with a megaphone, screaming out "Look at how good I am", but won't help someone in need right under their noses, or if they do, they proclaim it to everyone they see, to receive praise.

(Continued)

    In the verses just prior to those quoted above, Jesus said "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one [God] who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish [your heart] to the poor, and everything will be clean for you (verses 39-41, NIV)." The cup and dish He was referring to was the men themselves, all dressed up and making a show on the outside, but in their hearts cheating the poor and filled with greed. How many times have I seen people stand in Church and pray pious prayers, and then go out into the "marketplace" and refuse even the slightest kindness to their fellow man! Don't let yourself slip into this legalistic practice of religion, about which Jesus said "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. . . . . . Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? . . . . What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. . . . . All [the] evils come from inside and make a man unclean (selected passages, Mark7:9-23, NIV)." Don't be a Pharisee! Don't be religious! Rather, walk in faith, humbly, with thy God.

Yours in Christ, Tom Woodard
 
Please don't overlook "Note" below!

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 NOTE from Tom:  After reading Musings on Faith #15, above, my Cousin Charlie, a wonderful Christian man and one of my most treasured correspondants in the Christian faith, wrote me a letter, which speaks so eloquently and directly to the message of Musings #15 that I requested from him permission to publish it here. Charlie graciously consented, and here is his letter, in its entirety:


You have spoken about the lukewarm Church, and they seem to be abundant today. If you don't believe it, just ask them and they will say "Oh, we preach from the Bible". Yet they cannot tell you much about the Bible, apart from the select Scriptures which define and justify, for them, why they are what they are. It is Indoctrination of their Church Doctrine!   I have a distant cousin on my father's side who sends out a family newsletter every so often. The last issue contained photocopies of the Minutes of Occumulgee Baptist Church in the early 1800's, of which several of the Quarles family were members. One of the Quarles cousins was stricken of his membership for "consorting with the Methodists". Believers such as this exist even today - so immature! Paul, in 1st Corinthians, speaks out strongly about division. He says, "Who are you following, Paul, Cephas or Apollo?" And then he cautions against such division in the Church. How wrong they were then, and how wrong we are now to get caught up in such divisions! We are to keep our eyes on Jesus! He is what it is all about.  Denominations are man-made.

I tell people that I am a Christian who just happens to be going to a Baptist Church, and with the legalistic way in which some of them behave and believe, it would not bother me if they struck me from their membership rolls. They cannot strike me from the Lamb's Book of Life!

I go to an interdemoninational Bible study, and also to the Emmaus Center, which is also interdenominational. Oh, the beauty and the fulfillment I receive by being with these people who love the Lord, and who are filled with the Holy Spirit! But because of my participation in these groups, I have been questioned by a Deacon in the Church I attend. Such legalistic exclusionism! I am so glad that pious Church leaders have no control over who the Lord accepts into His kingdom!

Love ya,

Cuddin' Charlie